Thoughts of taxes and bad old days

It has taken a very long time, but the Bay State could nowadays be called "the state formerly known as Taxachusetts."

A recent survey puts Massachusetts in the middle of the pack when it comes to the level of state and local taxes its residents pay. The report, from the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, finds that Massachusetts ranks 23rd among the states, with residents paying 9.5 percent of their income in state and local taxes. That puts Massachusetts just below the national average of 9.7 percent.

What a difference a few decades makes. Back in 1980, Massachusetts was ranked No. 2, behind only New York state in taxing its citizens.

You've come a long way, Bay State. Now is no time to start back-sliding.

Unfortunately, Gov. Deval L. Patrick recently spoke about taxation, and his words were not as reassuring as we'd like for them to have been. While he didn't exactly embrace the idea of new and higher taxes, he didn't slam the door on confiscating more of the citizens' money.

Patrick is full of big, bold ideas, many of them sounding terrific - and terribly expensive. Universal pre-school. College for everyone. Wider health care coverage. Some pie in the sky.

While we can support the thinking behind some of his initiatives, we can easily and quickly grow nervous about the probable costs.

For too many people across the land, the commonwealth is still thought of as Taxachusetts. You don't earn a label like that just to live it down in a hurry. The state needs to continue to keep its taxes low - or at least in the middle of the pack - so that the old reputation does not again have the chance to rise.

The governor should keep an eye on ballot question No. 1 in November, a move to repeal the state's income tax. He thinks it's a really bad idea - and we wholeheartedly agree with him. But we'll bet that lots and lots of residents vote to end the tax, perhaps because they really want to, or maybe to send a message to Boston.